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NYPL Author Talks | Recorded live at the New York Public Library, Celeste Auditorium, on September 17, 2018.

From the bestselling author and renowned scholar of philosophy and law comes a revealing exploration of how the identities that shape our world are riddled with contradiction. Who are we, and what are we? How do we choose to self-identify? In his latest book, The Lies That Bind, Kwame Anthony Appiah explores the nature and history of the collective identities that define us—creed, sexuality, race, religion—and the role they play in our increasingly polarized world. Appiah shows how our contemporary thinking is disproportionately influenced by affiliations that draw us together as much as they tear us apart. He argues that there is no way to dispense of identities altogether, but suggests that, by gaining a deeper understanding, we can reconfigure them.